I get up in the morning looking for an adventure. — George Foreman

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Gridium Camp: Las Vegas

So we drove to Las Vegas, the long way round. The reason for the trip was Camp, Gridium‘s quarterly gathering. This was my fifth camp, and it followed the pattern of the others – tons of fun, lots of bonding, and high-productivity work time.

Our location this time was the fabulous Golden Nugget in downtown Las Vegas. I actually expected the place to be more run-down that it is, given our experience last time.

The downtown area has grown up quite a bit in 5 years, and it was a pretty pleasant place to be; lots of entertainment and food within walking distance, and tons of non-Disneyfied happenings at all hours. Our coffee kit once again saved us from terrible hotel slag for the just-woke-up jolt, and we found a really great hipstery coffee joint for brunch. We ate at Chengdu Taste, the most fabulous and spicy and authentic Chinese food I’ve ever put in my mouth. We also had tapas at Chow, stumbled into an underground techno party at the Downtown Cocktail Room late one night, rode the Fremont Street zipline at 3am, posed for a photo with a million dollars, and saw the world’s largest gold nugget.

There was also a hike! We went out to Red Rocks Canyon, a gorgeous place not far from town, and hiked up to where we could see the city again. The place doesn’t quite seem real.

This was a bittersweet experience for me. Not only was it my last Camp, it was also my last day as a Gridium employee; immediately after driving home I started at Zendesk. I’ll miss working with these brilliant people, and I can’t imagine a better way to cap off my time with them.